Happy New Years!

Hi Everone!

Well another year has past us by. It's amazing, everything my parents told me as a kid were correct. None more than when you get older time goes way to fast! Boy that's an understatement. So here I sit on New Years Eve with my three cats and my dog. Jeanette, my wife, had to go to CA for an emergency the day after Christmas and she is still out there. The best part of this is that there are three differenct CSI, Law and Order marathons on tonight! Ok, I must be getting old.

Anyway, this isn't really about real estate as it is about reflecting on the past year in the Real Estate business. It's been a tough year for a lot of my fellow Realtors. I know of many that have had to get jobs and move onto different careers. It's really a shame since many of these people are really good, honest, ethical and trustworthy people. On top of the Realtors, there are the people that bought homes in 2004 and 2005 only to watch their home values fall aproximately 30%. Like I said, it's been a tough year. All those consumers who have homes on the market are well aware how tough it is has been this year. If you listen to the media, the end of the world is coming in the housing market. Yes it's been tough, yet there are still people buying and selling homes. Approximately 5% of the homes that are listed, are selling each month. We have been telling people lately, do you want to be on the market or in the market. Only 5% of the homes will be in the market. Each month less than 500 homes are selling. I would venture to say that these people are all happy and relieved that they sold their properties. Whether people want to hear it or not, pricing is what is going to drive your home to a sale. If you are not below everyone else in the neighborhood, then the home may sit there for a long time. Of course there are some exceptions, however not many.

Ok, I really didn't want to get into the doom of the past year. Let's look at the good stuff. As a company, thanks to all of you, our customers, Tropical Realty of Suntree is the number one office in Brevard County for working with buyers. Our small staff did a tremendous job this past year in keeping everything rolling. This coming year we expect to beat 2007 numbers and sell even more homes. One thing I have always believed and have spent my entire business career doing is taking care of people. The more you take care of people and provide exceptional customer service, the more people would prefer to work with you. My staff, your Realtors, are great people. They all sincerely care about our customers before they think of themselves. Do you know how rare that is in a sales environment? It is quite a remarkable feat to have not lost any Agents over the past few years with the exception of two that changed careers. The reason is, we have a very caring, sincere, funny, honest, ethic, smiling group of people who fill out our Realtors and our Admin staff. We all get along great and I believe this shows when we are helping our customers.

So for 2008 I wish all of you a great year. If you are trying to sell your home, no matter what state you reside, and you need help or suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask. There are a few things we have tried that have worked pretty well. I also have an entire network of Realtors that we work with around the country so if you need to sell your home outside of Florida and would like my help in getting a good Realtor in your area, just drop me a note. My email is mitch@mitchrealty.com and phone number is 321-258-4150.

Happy New Year!!!

Mitch